Conference Call nected fields: from the isolated molecule to whole Malta III—Research and cellular systems, from the structure and reactivity of simple biological molecules to the investigation Education in the Middle East of the functionality of enzymes, nucleic acids, and by John M. Malin membranes, from looking at the fundamental physics underlying simple molecular processes to uses in clini- cal biochemistry. Known as “Malta III,” the third conference in the The participation of well-known specialists in dif- series, Frontiers of Chemical Sciences: Research and ferent domains of infrared spectroscopy provided a Education in the Middle East, was held in Istanbul, complete overview about the full potential of the tech- Turkey, from 8–13 December 2007. This remarkable nology. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the inter- series of meetings continues to bring scientists from esting lectures of Henry Mantsch, Dieter Naumann, Middle Eastern countries and other nations together Jürgen Schmitt, Rui Fausto, Ronald Birke, Urs Peter to discuss common problems and encourage col- Fringeli, José Luis Arrondo, Jean-Marie Ruysschaert, laborative research in the fields of energy, materials and Klaus Brandenburg among many others, which science, natural products, green chemistry, education, provided different points of views on the potential of and environment. FTIR. These perspectives definitely enriched the dis- Middle Eastern participation in Malta III was the cussions after each session. largest yet of the three conferences, named for the At the same time, the informal ambience of this island of Malta where the first two meetings were event also helped stimulate the interaction among held. Of the 90 participants, 67 were from Middle participants. This is particularly important for encour- Eastern countries: Bahrain (1) Egypt (9), Iran (8), Iraq aging open-minded younger scientists. (3), Israel—both Arabs and Jews (12), Jordan (9), The decision to hold the meeting in a “far away” city Kuwait (2), Lebanon (4), Palestinian Authority (10), such as Buenos Aires represented a big challenge. For Saudi Arabia (1), Turkey (4), United Arab Emirates (4). this reason, it was gratifying to have spectroscopists Other nations represented included Canada, Germany, from Asia, Africa, Europe, and America take part in the Norway, Switzerland, UK, and USA. meeting. This created a valuable human richness that As in Malta I and II, a multinational organizing com- was much appreciated by the participants. mittee chaired by Zafra M. Lerman from Columbia During this three-day meeting, 9 plenary lectures, College Chicago produced the event. Cosponsoring 10 semiplenary lectures and 10 short talks took place. organizations were the United National Educational, The first day was dedicated to the biomedical applica- Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); tions of vibrational spectroscopy. The second day, to IUPAC; Columbia College Chicago; American Chemical the physicochemical characterization of biologically Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and relevant compounds, and the third day, to the infrared Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh). spectroscopy of lipids and proteins. IUPAC’s financial support enabled the conference Plenary Sessions and Workshops organizers to cover some of the travel costs of the ple- A special feature of the conference was a series nary lecturers and also to provide grants to younger of six plenary lectures by Nobel Laureates Aaron participants, which constituted one of the most fun- Ciechanover (Israel), Richard Ernst (Switzerland), damental objectives of this meeting (to provide an Roald Hoffmann (USA), Tim Hunt (UK), Walter Kohn opportunity for young scientists to meet internation- (USA), and F. Sherwood Rowland (USA). ally recognized scientists in this field and to learn from The first plenary session was chaired by Hasan Salah them and develop their chosen professions). Dweik of Al Quds University (Palestinian Authority). In The success of the meeting encouraged the orga- his address, entitled “The Nature of Energy,” Peter nizers to consider FTIR 2007 as the first in a series Atkins (Oxford University, UK) presented an enlight- of meetings. After the event, the idea of organizing a ening overview of how the qualitative concepts of meeting in approximately two years was accepted by energy, entropy, temperature, space, and time have everyone. lead to development of the quantitative tools of ther- modynamics. Andrea Gómez-Zavaglia <[email protected]> is a professor at the Universidad Ameen Farouk M. Fahmy, Ain Shams University de Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Egypt), chaired the second plenary session in which Richard Ernst (Nobel Laureate, E.T.H., Switzerland) CHEMISTRY International May-June 2008 31 Conference Call discussed development of an important spectro- by introducing Aaron Ciechanover, (Nobel Laureate, scopic technique, “The Importance of the Fourier Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel), who Transformation in Spectroscopy: From Monsieur presented “On the Middle East and Converting the Fourier’s Calculus to Medical Imaging.” In the third Ubiquitin System Into a Drug Platform.” plenary session, chaired by Mehdi Jalali-Heravi, Sharif The organizers ensured that Malta III would provide University of Technology (Iran), Tim Hunt (Nobel significant opportunities for interpersonal interactions. Laureate, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK), dis- A poster session featuring some 42 presentations was cussed “The Cell Cycle and Cancer,” reviewing the carried on throughout the conference. Discussions genetic components of carcinogenesis and the current centered on the posters during morning and afternoon limits of chemotherapy. coffee breaks as well as before and after dinner. One The chair of the fourth plenary session was Hanan evening, Roald Hoffmann led an informal session of Malkawi of Yarmouk University (Jordan) who intro- Middle Eastern dancing. duced Nobel laureate F. Sherwood Rowland (Nobel Middle Eastern and other scientists presented their Laureate, University of California at Irvine, USA), who results in workshops that were held throughout the spoke on “Greenhouse Gases and Global Climate conference and which served to develop conference Change.” Plenary session five was called to order by recommendations. The Workshop on Environment: Venice Gouda, Former Minister of Research (Egypt). Air and Water Quality was co-chaired by Charles He introduced Roald Hoffmann (Nobel Laureate, Kolb (USA), Hanan Malkawi (Jordan), and Abdallah Al-Zoubi (Jordan). Catherine Costello (USA), Samira Islam (Saudi Arabia), and Stanley Langer (UK) chaired the Workshop on Medicinal and Natural Products. The Workshop on Nanotechnology and Materials Science was chaired by Mukhles Sowwan (Palestinian Authority) and Zehra Sayers (Turkey). The workshop on Science Education and Green Chemistry was co-chaired by Boshra Awad (Egypt), Farouk Fahmy (Egypt), and Ann Nalley (USA), while the workshop on Alternative Energy Sources was co-chaired by Hani Khouri (Jordan) and Hassan Zohoor (Iran). Conference Recommendations Workshop participants urged that the conference recommendations should be carried forward to the appropriate agencies and authorities. An especially urgent need for action was identified during the Environmental Workshop when Yousef Abu-Mayla, director of the Water Research Center at Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip, described widespread degradation of water quality in Gaza. Malta III attend- Cornell University, USA) who spoke on “Chemistry ees unanimously adopted a communiqué to urge Bonds: Three intensive workshops for young scientists action on this issue (see Mar-Apr 2008 CI, page 18) in the Middle East,” detailing three workshops he has to be addressed to regional and world leaders. The organized in the Middle East for younger scientists. document has been delivered to Tony Blair, envoy to Plenary session six was opened by session chair the Middle East working on behalf of the USA, Russia, Sultan Abu-Orabi, Tafila Technical University (Jordan). the United Nations, and the European Union. He introduced plenary speaker Walter Kohn (Nobel Other important recommendations from the work- Laureate, University of California Santa Barbara, USA), shops are summarized as follows: who spoke on “The Power of the Sun” and screened his • A project to build a canal from the Red Sea to the recently produced video on the uses and importance of Dead Sea to generate hydroelectric power and solar cells. Alfred Abed Rabbo, Bethlehem University also to replace water lost by evaporation from (Palestinian Authority) began plenary session seven the Dead Sea should be carried forward. Middle 32 CHEMISTRY International May-June 2008 Conference Call Eastern scientists will be looking for help from lished to facilitate exchanges of ideas among the world community in analyzing, evaluating, and Middle East scientists. Web-based resources are potentially planning and executing this bold proj- needed, including a directory of laboratory equip- ect. In general, large collaborative projects should ment and expertise plus weblinks connecting to commit a significant fraction of the project’s bud- freely available databases and software. get to support active graduate and postdoctoral • Newly-developed theories in chemical educa- student participation in the project. tion should be integrated into Middle East cur- • Regional alliances of scientists and engineers ricula. Green chemistry, energy, nanotechnology, with environmental skills